Energy absorbing apparatus for sporting goods

ABSTRACT

An energy absorbing apparatus adds support on sporting equipment, such as hockey skates, to protect the user from injury. The energy absorbing apparatus for hockey skates may protect the user&#39;s foot and ankle from injury. The energy absorbing apparatus may include a shock absorbing urethane foam member that may be formed integrally in a hockey skate. In an alternate embodiment, the energy absorbing material may be disposed in an adjunct adapted to be attached to a conventional hockey skate. The energy absorbing apparatus and the alternate embodiment are both light weight and flexible. The energy absorbing material may be used in helmets, baseball jerseys and other items where absorbing energy from external forces may protect the wearer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. provisionalpatent application No. 61/228,441, filed Jul. 24, 2009, which is hereinincorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to protective devices and, moreparticularly, to an energy absorbing apparatus for sporting apparatus toprotect a participant from injury.

Conventional hockey skates do not have any absorbing materialtherewithin to absorb any impact to the foot and/or ankle. Currenthockey skates only have plastic supports in a few areas for protection.

As can be seen, there is a need for improved protective devices forsporting goods, such as hockey skates.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect of the present invention, an energy absorbing apparatusfor protecting a user from an impact of an external force comprises aurethane foam absorbing material attached to an item worn by the user.

In another aspect of the present invention, a hockey skate comprises amicrocellular polyurethane absorbing material, the absorbing materialcapable of absorbing at least about 50 percent of the total impact on anexternal force on a wearer of the hockey skate.

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood with reference to the followingdrawings, description and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an energy absorbing hockey skateaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the hockey skate of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the hockey skate of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an energy absorbing adjunct for a hockeyskate according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a hockey skate having the energyabsorbing adjunct of FIG. 5 installed thereupon.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplatedmodes of carrying out exemplary embodiments of the invention. Thedescription is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merelyfor the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention,since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.

Various inventive features are described below that can each be usedindependently of one another or in combination with other features.

Broadly, an embodiment of the present invention provides an energyabsorbing apparatus for support on sporting equipment, such as hockeyskates, to protect the user from injury. The energy absorbing apparatusfor hockey skates may protect the user's foot and ankle from injury. Theenergy absorbing apparatus may include a shock absorbing urethane foammember that may be formed integrally in a hockey skate. In an alternateembodiment, the energy absorbing material may be disposed in an adjunctadapted to be attached to a conventional hockey skate. The energyabsorbing material, according to alternate embodiments of the presentinvention, may be used in helmets, baseball jerseys and other itemswhere absorbing energy from external forces may protect the wearer.

Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, an energy absorbing hockey skate 10 mayinclude a urethane foam absorbing piece 12 disposed about a hockey skatebase 16. The urethane foam absorbing piece 12 may be covered with anouter leather component 14 to provide an aesthetically pleasingappearance while holding the urethane foam absorbing piece 12 in place.The plastic pieces (not shown) present in conventional skates may befound in the energy absorbing hockey skate 10 of the present invention.

When hockey players get hit with an external force, such as with a slapshot or a puck traveling at, for example, up to 100 miles per hour, orwhen a hockey player gets slashed with a hockey stick, the energyabsorbing hockey skate 10 may absorb these external forces and reduce oreliminate any injury to the foot or ankle of the player.

The urethane foam absorbing piece 12 may be a microcellularpolyurethane, such as Cellasto® urethane foam. The urethane foamabsorbing piece 12 may be from about 3 to about 10 mm thick, typicallyabout 5 mm thick. A 5 mm thick layer of urethane foam, such as Cellesto®may absorb between about 60 to about 70 percent of the external impactforce.

The energy absorbing hockey skate 10 of FIGS. 1 through 4 may be madeby, for example, hockey skate manufacturers, by incorporating theurethane foam absorbing piece 12 into the design of the skate. In analternate embodiment of the present invention, an energy absorbingadjunct 20 may be designed to fit onto a conventional skate 22, as shownin FIGS. 5 and 6. The adjunct 20 may attach around the conventionalskate 22 and may include an outer leather component 14-1 encasing aurethane foam absorbing piece 12-1. FIGS. 5 and 6 have the outer leathercomponent 14-1 partially cut away to expose the urethane foam absorbingpiece 12-1. The adjunct 20 may not include this partially cut awayregion. Eyelets 24 of the adjunct 20 may align with eyelets (not shown)of the conventional skate, allowing the adjunct to be held in place tothe skate 22 when laces 26 are laced through the eyelets 24. Straps 28may be positioned across a bottom region 30 of the adjunct 20 to helphold the adjunct 20 to the skate 22. The straps 28 may be elastic andmay include hook and loop fasteners, such as Velcro® to create aremovable adjunct 20. The urethane foam absorbing piece 12-1 may beCellesto® urethane foam. Tests of the adjunct piece 20 have shown thatit is capable of absorbing from about 61 to about 70 percent of theimpact force of a hockey puck traveling at 100 miles per hour.

The urethane foam absorbing piece 12, 12-1 may not only be useful forabsorbing external impacts on skates. The urethane foam absorbing piece12, 12-1 may be used to absorb impacts or blows in a variety of sportinggoods, such as helmets to protect a wearer from head injuries in sportssuch as football, baseball, boxing, race car driving, ATV riding, snowboarding, skiing, lacrosse, bicycling, bobsledding, rafting, wresting,and the like. The urethane foam absorbing piece 12, 12-1 may also beused in helmets for military use, medical use, and the like. Tests of afootball helmet including a 25 mm piece of Cellesto® foam showed that,in impacts in excess of 100 G's, the material absorbed from about 20 toabout 40 percent of the force to the head area in conjunction with theconventional material already present in commercial football helmets. Inaddition to the use in skates and helmets, the urethane foam absorbingpiece 12, 12-1 may be used in other personal protective applications,such as in jerseys for Little League baseball players, sewn into theshirts in the front and rear to protect the players from injuries frombeing hit with a baseball.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates toexemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims.

1. An energy absorbing apparatus for protecting a user from an impact ofan external force, the apparatus comprising: a urethane foam absorbingmaterial attached to an item worn by the user.
 2. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the external force is from the user participating in a sport.3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the item is a hockey skate and thesport is hockey.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the urethane foamabsorbing material is a microcellular polyurethane.
 5. The apparatus ofclaim 4, wherein the microcellular polyurethane is integrally formedinto the hockey skate.
 6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein themicrocellular polyurethane is covered with an outer covering and shapedto fit around an exterior of the hockey skate.
 7. The apparatus of claim6, further comprising: eyelets adapted to align with eyelets of thehockey skate when the apparatus is fitted around the exterior of thehockey skate; and at least one strap extending from a bottom portion ofthe apparatus, the at least one strap adapted to fit around the skate.8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the item is a helmet.
 9. A hockeyskate comprising: a microcellular polyurethane absorbing material, theabsorbing material capable of absorbing at least about 50 percent of thetotal impact on an external force on a wearer of the hockey skate. 10.The hockey skate of claim 9, wherein either a) the microcellularpolyurethane is integrally formed into the hockey skate, or b) themicrocellular polyurethane is covered with an outer covering and shapedto fit around an exterior of the hockey skate.